SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea stepped up its rhetoric Monday as South Korea and the United States kicked off joint military drills that Pyongyang claims are rehearsals for a northward invasion.
"The war drills are an unpardonable infringement upon the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK as they evidently target the DPRK which is in the mourning period," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in an English-language dispatch, referring to the North by the initials of its official name.
The North has been observing a period of mourning after the Dec. 17 death of its longtime leader Kim Jong-il.
The latest warning came as South Korea and the U.S. staged the Key Resolve exercise that will last through March 9, with about 200,000 South Korean and 2,100 U.S. troops participating.
Separately, the two allies plan to hold the Foal Eagle joint military exercise from March 1 to April 30.
South Korea and the U.S. regularly hold military exercises to bolster their readiness against a possible North Korean invasion.
The North, which has a track record of military provocations against South Korea, routinely condemns the military drills in the South as precursors for an invasion.
"The army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to fight a war with them," the dispatch said. "The warmongers will meet destruction in the fire kindled by them if they go reckless misjudging the strong will of the Koreans to defend peace."
Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive in nature.
Kim's youngest son and new leader, Kim Jong-un, has instructed the military to "make a powerful retaliatory strike" at South Korea, if Seoul intrudes even slightly into the North's waters.
Kim made the comment during his recent trip to front-line military units responsible for the deadly shelling of a South Korean island in 2010, according to the KCNA.
On Saturday, Pyongyang vowed to launch a "sacred war" against the South and the U.S.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an armistice, rather than a peace treaty.
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